(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer

Hiding in your own box and never trying to win is much more disrespectful. Asking people to pay £40 or more to watch their team "defend valiantly" is disrespectful, and is why you see so many empty seats at Premier League games.

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I think it's rather arrogant of you, as a supporter of one of the richest and strongest clubs in the league, to make such judgements about the supporters of clubs who are struggling to merely stay in the league with much less money.

Some clubs' fans might enjoy seeing their team go down with flying colours, but others are probably looking for something different - namely results. And in my opinion it's just as legitimate - maybe even moreso for "inferior" clubs - to play defensive, destructive tactics in matches where they just can't compete with the opposing team on a technical level, like Arsenal. It is smart tactics to adapt your game to the way your opponent plays.

That's probably frustrating to watch sometimes, but who are you to tell other clubs they should play harakiri just because you're pissed off that Arsenal can't play their usual game against these teams?

First, Arsenal are not "rich". My club is run as a sensible business. Despite some of our shares being owned by billionaires, we do not get one penny from our owners either. We are routinely outspent by other clubs outside of the top four. We survive by bringing in the best young players we can find and turning them in to world class players. Arsenal built a new stadium to support this, at the club's own expense.

Second, the reason we have so many fans is because the club markets itself well and we play entertaining football that people want to pay to see. This is why our stadium sells out every week. We often even fill our stadium for Carling Cup games where the fans know they won't be seeing our strongest line-up.

Football exists for the purposes of entertainment. If you do not entertain the fans then you are ripping them off. Defensive football is one thing, outright dirty football is another, you are not just ripping your own fans off but you are ripping off the entire Premier League when top players are unable to play because they're injured.

First, Arsenal are not "rich". My club is run as a sensible business. Despite some of our shares being owned by billionaires, we do not get one penny from our owners either. We are routinely outspent by other clubs outside of the top four. We survive by bringing in the best young players we can find and turning them in to world class players. Arsenal built a new stadium to support this, at the club's own expense.

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All true, but Arsenal still has a lot more money available than all but a select few other clubs worldwide.

According to the Deloitte "Football Money League" report 2009 (this is about the 2007/08 season):

Second, the reason we have so many fans is because the club markets itself well and we play entertaining football that people want to pay to see. This is why our stadium sells out every week. We often even fill our stadium for Carling Cup games where the fans know they won't be seeing our strongest line-up.

Football exists for the purposes of entertainment. If you do not entertain the fans then you are ripping them off. Defensive football is one thing, outright dirty football is another, you are not just ripping your own fans off but you are ripping off the entire Premier League when top players are unable to play because they're injured.

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People take entertainment out of football in many different ways, even ways that are counter-intuitive to what a reasonable person would normally describe as "entertainment". I can't tell you how many games I've watched where I knew beforehand that it would be a miserable experience, because my club is playing shit, the stadium is empty, it's freezing cold outside and we have little chance of winning, and I went anyway. And that's even though I'm a supporter of a club that's routinely one of the dominating teams in our league anyway. Fans of other clubs certainly take some joy just from beating clubs like mine, or at least taking a point away.

Sure, everyone would rather see their team playing a flashy style and all that. But given the choice between doing that and getting relegated or playing ugly and winning - how do you think most fans would choose?

I mean seriously, in what world are you living? Do you seriously believe the fans of a club like Stoke enjoy seeing a player like Chr. Ronaldo make their players look like fools? Of course not, they'd rather see one of their guys break Ronaldo's legs. Football is not a children's birthday party.

Let me put it this way, FUCK playing pretty football I want results because thats how you win and win enough and the decent style of football with come along too. No matter how good your team plays £40 is a rip off no matter what...tickets should be much lower, especially now.

All true, but Arsenal still has a lot more money available than all but a select few other clubs worldwide.

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That graph does not show where it all goes. That shows income, not bank balance. Arsenal have a huge loan to pay off and a property portfolio that is shrinking in value.

I mean seriously, in what world are you living? Do you seriously believe the fans of a club like Stoke enjoy seeing a player like Chr. Ronaldo make their players look like fools? Of course not, they'd rather see one of their guys break Ronaldo's legs. Football is not a children's birthday party.

Interesting results in the Champions League - ok for Arsenal, bad for Manchester, but I was very impressed with both non-English teams. I'd love to see Porto come through even though I strongly dislike that club.

Hopefully we'll be relieved of the need to allow any of their fans in to our stadium after Cesc Fabregas was pelted with junk every time he tried to take a corner. The muppets will be cheering for him when he plays for Spain next time as well.

If three teams go to the semis this year, that'll mean another year of Platini and Blatter plotting on how to cripple English teams.

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Trouble for Uefa is that most of the ideas that they'll likely come up with will affect Italian and Spanish teams just as much as the English sides, ie. quotas on the number of foreign players etc. If they go down that route then I'd put money on the English/Italian/Spanish sides starting to talk about a breakaway European superleague again.

A very good performance by Chelsea, and Hiddink in particular. They beat us man for man, and if Drogba could finish it would have been a rout. Gerrard couldn't get himself involved, and we never had control of the game. Sloppy defending cost us three goals, and the tie's probably over.